While a ‘united’ opposition aims at removing the BJP government at the Centre, the million dollar question is whether these parties will have enough numbers in the Lok Sabha to cobble up a majority after the 2019 general elections.

The number of Lok Sabha seats held by the thirteen parties which were present at the swearing-in ceremony today is as follows:

While Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief and Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao did not attend the oath-taking ceremony, he met Kumaraswamy on Tuesday to extend his greetings, and indicating support to the parties, which aim at uniting for the upcoming elections.

If the 11 Lok Sabha seats held by Rao’s TRS is added, the total number of Lok Sabha seats in control of the ‘anti-BJP’ Opposition adds up to 144.

Currently the House has a strength of 545 seats out of which 543 elected members are directly elected and at the President of India nominates the remaining two members from the Anglo-Indian Community.

On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alone has 272 Lok Sabha members, which accounts for around 50.83 per cent of the total strength. The BJP (of the NDA) had achieved an absolute majority with 282 seats out of 543 in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. However, BJP’s number went down after the party’s defeat in some of the bypolls held thereafter.

The representatives of the political parties, which were present at the podium, together form around 40 per cent of the vote share which these parties got during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in which BJP came first with 31 per cent of the vote share.

However, taking on BJP – a party which rules more than 70 per cent of the country’s population – in the upcoming elections will be a Herculean task for these parties because of one big question – who will be the leader of the Opposition and will he be acceptable to all these 13 parties?